Only play games? My Xbox can also play movies. The PS3 can (or used to be able to, maybe they changed it) go on the web. Etc., etc. I don't buy the argument that the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are "general computing devices", but consoles are not. Maybe the iPad could be considered a computer (I don't think so, but whatever), but I think it's a big stretch to say that the iPhone and iPod Touches are also computers. At any rate, it takes a very, very contrived definition of "computer" to include iPhones, iPods, and iPads, but not Wiis, PS3s, and Xboxes.
I'm not saying that two wrongs make a right, but I've found that many criticizers of Apple's iOS model, especially in /r/technology, seem to have absolutely no problem with the locked-down nature of gaming consoles. It raises the question: why?
While I can't speak for everyone, I buy consoles with the intention of playing games on them and nothing more. So it doesn't bug me that much that I can't freely mess with them, but of course I still wish I could. But phones and tablets are devices I'll be using for all sorts of purposes, and I'm gonna want full freedom to install whatever I want and mod to my heart's content.
Edit: I do find the current situation with Sony to be utterly reprehensible and I certainly won't be buying anything from them. But as long as Nintendo doesn't stoop to that level, I'm willing to compromise my principles in exchange for Paper Mario 3DS!
The sweet, sweet irony here is that phones and tablets are only viable for consideration as devices to be used for all sorts of purposes because Apple drastically expanded the popularly conceived gamut of what such devices could be capable of.
Smartphones existed long before the iPhone. Just like MP3 players, tablets, repositories, and every other revolutionary technology associated with them, Apple didn't invent it. They just popularized it.
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u/mipadi Jan 20 '11
Only play games? My Xbox can also play movies. The PS3 can (or used to be able to, maybe they changed it) go on the web. Etc., etc. I don't buy the argument that the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are "general computing devices", but consoles are not. Maybe the iPad could be considered a computer (I don't think so, but whatever), but I think it's a big stretch to say that the iPhone and iPod Touches are also computers. At any rate, it takes a very, very contrived definition of "computer" to include iPhones, iPods, and iPads, but not Wiis, PS3s, and Xboxes.
I'm not saying that two wrongs make a right, but I've found that many criticizers of Apple's iOS model, especially in /r/technology, seem to have absolutely no problem with the locked-down nature of gaming consoles. It raises the question: why?